xXx: Return of Xander Cage

The plot is as flimsy as the garments on the beauties.

If it isn't a crime to chop up the beautiful fight choreography of Donnie Yen into unintelligible ribbons, well, it ought to be.

This is only slightly less dumb and nonsensical than the previous films, but it teems with thrilling action sequences and rollicking stunt work from the middle-aged Diesel and martial artist Donnie Yen.

Diesel lacks the screen presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor of limited talents who nevertheless epitomized the contemporary action hero in American popcorn cinema for two decades through the power of his sheer will.

Vin Diesel, the lord of The Fast and the Furious franchise, has just upped the mojo of his spy-thriller xXx sagas to a high-adrenalin stratosphere that will take action-film junkies to the land of nirvana.

Even in the weak signal that is the January movie season, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage hardly registers.

Hardcore porn for action junkies, xXx: Return of Xander Cage should also get a rise out of more casual viewers burned out on Oscar bait and looking for a mindless time at the movies.

Since the majority of the movie resembles a long, stylized music video, the DJ just might be the most important recruit of them all.

It's an action film. Nothing more. Nothing less. Okay, maybe a little bit less.

The return of Xander Cage is maybe not something anyone particularly expected to see in 2017, but if you are willing to buy in to its brand of trashiness, you should rather enjoy feeling like it's 2002 again.